Raising money for Lupus

A few weeks ago, my brother, his partner, my sister, my dad, Casey, Duffy and I all participated in a 5K Walk/Run to raise money for the Lupus Foundation. It ended up being a very fun event and it felt good to be doing something to honor my mom. It was interesting to me though that my mom had Lupus for 54 years and yet, this was the first time we had done something as a family to raise money for Lupus. I guess the important thing is that we finally did something, even if it was after she was already gone.

Seven hundred and twenty seven people participated in the 5K and their preliminary count showed the event raised $69,000, a 40% increase over what they had raised last year at this event. While looking at their website, I saw that a drug had just recently been approved for Lupus patients. It is the first approved Lupus drug in 50 years (and they estimate that it would cost a person about $30K/year to be on the drug). I found that a bit disconcerting.

While I was happy to do something to help the cause, and happy to honor my mom, I did still have a small inner conflict . . . the same inner conflict I feel when I am at the grocery store, and the checkout clerk asks you if you want to donate to the cause of the month (this month it is Prostate cancer). It's not that I am against raising money to find cures for diseases, it has more to do with my belief that physical illnesses are rooted in emotional/mental beliefs. I feel sad sometimes that people suffer so much without understanding how truly empowered they are to improve their physical health.

Many years ago, I was introduced to a book by Louise Hay called "Heal Your Body." In the book, she lists out hundreds of physical ailments, what the potential emotional root cause could be and a positive affirmation to help you change the belief you hold. Admittedly, I was not opened to the book when I first saw it, because I didn't want to admit that my own thoughts and emotions could be causing the physical problems I was having. It felt too much like "it's my fault" and the last thing I wanted to feel was "at fault" . . . but over time, (and after being introduced to the book two more times) I finally began to realize how much truth there was in the book and how empowered I truly was to take charge of my health.

I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that the good majority of my human clients have the book too. I enjoy being able to refer to the book and gain insights from it when a client and I are working through some physical pain or illness they are dealing with. Some things can be resolved pretty quickly and some take a lot longer, especially if they are rooted in some really old well ingrained beliefs, but bottom line, I have seen evidence again and again that we really can heal our bodies.

An example of one that I can resolve pretty quickly. . . I used to get a stiff neck all the time and now I barely get them at all, or if I do, I can clear it up in a matter of hours. I'll never forget the first time I looked up "stiff neck" in Louise's book. It said, "Unbending bullheadedness." I laughed my head off because I couldn't deny the truth. Whenever I would get stuck in one of those "I'm right - No, I'm right" push/pull tug of wars, I would instantly get a stiff neck. Now, as soon as I notice what is happening, I can open my mind more to see the other person's perspective, stop being so set on my opinion . . . and the neck pain goes away.

One that I have been working on for years is my hypothyroidism. I was diagnosed when I was in 7th grade, so it's definitely rooted in some old well ingrained beliefs. The emotional root cause is, "giving up, feeling hopelessly stifled" which very accurately describes how I felt as a child and how I feel, on occasion, even now. I have managed to "heal" my thyroid enough that the doctors have twice lowered the level of medication I need to take every day. I hope to continue to heal those old beliefs and thought patterns, so that the dosage can continue to be lowered.

At any rate, I do wish more people realized there was a connection between what they think and believe and feel . . . and how it manifests itself as dis-ease in the body. We have so much more power over our experiences in life than most of us realize. We have the ability to heal the dis-ease that we experience, if we can allow ourselves to look more closely at our deeply held beliefs and decide to change them.

My family is already signed up for the next 5K Walk/Run to raise money for Lupus. It is in October and I will happily participate, to honor my mother . . . and I will also continue to hope that more people will begin to feel empowered to heal their bodies and their lives.

Cricket

My next door neighbors had to go out of town this past week because of a death in their family. They asked me if I could look in on their almost 15 year old dog Cricket for a few days. They just wanted me to feed him and let him out a couple times a day to go potty, but I told them that I would just bring him to my house, if that was ok with them. They were not expecting that but were pleased none-the-less that Cricket would get to have a 'vacation' while they were out of town.

I brought him over on Wednesday night and since he knows me and since we were just next door, I figured he would settle in quickly, but I was wrong about that. For the first two hours, he paced around the entire house, sniffing every inch of carpet, every nook and cranny, around and around and around he went. I tried distracting him with the dog treats . . . I managed to get him to lay down for a minute or two while I gave him a couple treats but as soon as the treats were gone, he was back to pacing around the house. Nothing I said to him seemed to help, so I decided to just let him do what he needed to do and knew that eventually he would tire himself out.

Having Cricket here was such a different experience for me than living with Lucky. For one, Lucky was very independent and "did her own thing" most of the time. By contrast, Cricket is a little on the needy side. He did not like to be away from me and followed me everywhere I went, including the bathroom. If I sat still for a while, he would finally lay down and relax but the second I moved, he would be up again, not wanting to miss out on a single thing that I did.

If the phone rang, he had to follow me into the kitchen to answer the phone. If I needed to go to another room for a minute, I would try to explain to him what I was doing and that I would be right back, but it didn't seem to make a difference. If I needed to get something from my office upstairs, he followed me up the stairs and then back down the stairs. When I did laundry, he was back and forth to the laundry room with me, observing as I put things in the dryer, or folded the dry clothes. It was almost comical. I never took a single step for three days without him at my heels.

I didn't sleep well the nights he was here, in part because he snored more than any dog I have ever known. I kept waking up in the middle of the night, trying to identify the strange sound I was hearing, then realizing it was Cricket "sawing logs" on his dog bed on the floor, I would roll over and try to go back to sleep . . . until a sound he was making woke me again. If I got up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom, Cricket was up, following me in there and trying to get me to pet him. I said to him several times, "Cricket, you are a sweetheart and I adore you, but you have got to give me a little space!" :-) But his desire for attention and companionship seemed to outweigh any desire I may have had for a little space.

Regardless of my lack of alone time while he was here, I couldn't help being entertained by him and I also found myself in awe that a big dog like Cricket (he's a lab/spaniel mix) could be so healthy and so mobile at his age. For those of us who have struggled through health challenges with our dogs as they grew older, you know what a gift it is to have an older dog who is doing as well as Cricket is. The only issue he has is a lack of hearing but even that didn't stop him from being able to track my every move. :-)

When his family returned, I brought him back home. He was thrilled to see them and they were grateful that he was well taken care of while they were away. I was glad I was able to help them in some small way, when they were going through such a difficult time. I'll confess, I did sleep really well that night and did enjoy going to the bathroom by myself. :-) But I also know that if they needed my help again, I'd take care of him again in a heartbeat.